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Mrs. Clinton: I've thought about that a lot. For a certain population trapped in generational poverty, what we've done hasn't worked. I think getting up and going to work, going to school, and having to make the same difficult decisions about who cares for your children that every other working mother has to make is a necessary step toward learning how to be self-sufficient. Yes, people who are physically able to work ought to work. Now having said that, I think they ought to have child-care support and they ought to have some benefits to take care of their children medically. But I don't think it's fair to subsidize some people and say they shouldn't have to leave their children when millions of women do it every day.
TIME: Do you think divorce should be made more difficult?
Mrs. Clinton: When you're responsible for children, you have to put their interests at least equal with if not ahead of your own. There is a lot of evidence about the traumas and difficulties that divorced mothers face, financially and emotionally, and also about what happens to the children. I know there are many instances where a situation is intolerable. But what I would hope is that we would be more honest talking about the costs of divorce, and when parents seek a divorce, there would be a waiting or cooling-off period when counseling programs would be available, maybe even required.
TIME: Do you plan another health-care initiative, this time focused on children, such as a "Kidcare" program that would be a counterpart to Medicare?
Mrs. Clinton: The President has said that in a second term he would look at how we could come up with a realistic, effective way of insuring kids. I think that would be a very good step for the country. Kids are cheaper to insure than us older, creakier people, but when they're sick, they are often more acutely sick. I just don't understand how anybody can look at these children, who are usually the children of working parents, and not feel that we have a responsibility to help them get the medical care they deserve.
TIME: Has there been a rift between you and children's activist Marian Wright Edelman since her "open letter" to the President advocating more spending on children's needs?
Mrs. Clinton: I don't feel that at all. I was attracted to Marian when I was in law school because of her passion. She does what she does better than anyone else in the country. But understand that in the political process you may have to take it one step at a time. Looking at Marian and looking at my husband, I see two people who both care deeply about what happens to children, and they have different roles.
TIME: Are you going to be part of Stand for Children?
Mrs. Clinton: Yes, I'm going to be at the Kennedy Center on Friday night. I'm going to do everything I can to help support it.